You may enjoy reading Underwood Dudley's "What To Do When the Trisector Comes". He was a mathematician, but his observations and approach probably generalize to science pretty well.

I’m an archaeologist and I’ve gone a few rounds with similar types. Generally not worth it.

I wish I could agree with you, but without alt text it is impossible for me to read what's inside the image. Please post images with text always with alt text. thank you.

I always use alt-text (I made sure the setting is set so I can’t post images without it) but I didn’t notice @philipcball.bsky.social’s screenshot didn’t have any

Sorry, my fault. I'll try to be sure to do that in future.

But my warp drive is different

I once had a medical doctor show up to my office with his “new theory of relativity” which postulated on page one that things could travel faster than c, so I spent quite some time explaining to him that a) experimental evidence doesn’t support this, and b) some classic SR “paradoxes” and examples.

he left somewhat disappointed, but the next day when I arrived in my office, there were three bottles of wine and a thank you note.

IIRC Isaac Asimov used to claim to write back "Thank you for your letter; as a mere biochemist they are quite beyond me, but I have forwarded your thesis to my friend Arthur C Clarke, who is a physicist. I am sure he will be happy to reply" cc @philipcball.bsky.social

If I recall correctly, Martin Gardner used to say something along the lines of, I'm not expert enough to evaluate your thesis, but I have here a letter from someone else working in the same field as you, and I suggest the two of you collaborate...

I am often tempted to do the same with @jimalkhalili.bsky.social.

Ah, I didn’t realize he was on here! (Hi!)

"Thanks. I forwarded this to Avi Loeb at Harvard."

Apparently you can just email Noam Chomsky and he will just reply and go on and on with you. I always thought that was bonkers. I just spam everything myself

This is implies the existence of solicited theories. Sometimes you ask for theories?? Ask me about my quantum-foam-is-proof-we're -in-a-simulation theory! My credentials: I... have a BA in theater

Yep, absolutely appropriate response

/dev/null ?

There are similar problems with legal theories about why the federal income tax is unconstitutional, federal laws can’t apply to native born “sovereign citizens,” etc. No response can dissuade them; they just go on to a different theory (or lash out because you are part of the conspiracy).

Yesterday I learned about John Wheeler calling Richard Feynman to tell him all electrons were the same electron. I love that idea, but even more I love the idea of calling Feynman on the telephone and telling him something like that.

Oh you mean the Bohr War? 🤔

Reads uncannily like interacting with an LLM

-Inbox -Sent -Drafts -Spam -The World Is Not Ready

Admit I am a bit curious as the what sort of Rube Goldberg perpetuum mobile Bohr's correspondent eventually ended up with :)

I generally get a few “my personal theory” e-mails each week. People often ask if they’re entertaining. They’re not. They’re sometimes frustrating, frequently sad, and occasionally legitimately frightening (when the sender is dangerously conspiracy-minded). Recently, a lot of them mention ChatGPT.

I spoke to a number of scientists from my country about this phenomenon. One (a semi-celibrity astronomer/physicist) enjoyed matching them to each other. "Ah, yes, I can see the importance of this line of thinking. Unfortunately, I'm not really the expert, but can probably help you".

Haha. Wie?

Vincent Icke.

Echt briljant. Ik ga hem onthouden

ik kende het verhaal en het is eenbriljant idee, maar heb het zelf nooit aangedurfd 😅 Wat zou het heerlijk zijn om een fly on the wall te zijn bij zo'n gesprek

Er bestaat een XKCD over deze tactiek: xkcd.com/966/

Ik heb het wel gedaan. De kwakhistoricus naar wie ik een kwakhistoricus doorstuurde, vond dat ik overlast had veroorzaakte en dreigde met een rechtszaak. Gelukkig heb ik een rechtsbijstandsverzekering, maar je moet de status van een Icke hebben om dit te doen zonder zelf problemen te krijgen.

Is the volume of emails changing with the availability of ChatGPT? I'm wondering if it's absorbing some of that communication, or just encouraging people to keep going with their "theories".

You've made me think about this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_El...

i used to date a guy who became a mathematician and back in the day (the late 90s early aughts) people posted that type of thing in chatrooms and my bf would troll the cranks on there which seems kinda mean in retrospect but at least they had, you know, their own place? i guess.

We used to collect them and go through them in class to know why they were wrong. While you cannot convince someone trying to violate thermodynamics with engineering that they are wrong you can learn a lot about dissecting an argument and finding contradictory evidence.

As an accountant loving precise calculations I always suspect that lots of astronomical issues are a result of rounding too much. However I’m sure that if I posited this as real hypothesis I’d be smoked by any astronomer who could be bothered. So I’ll sit here mumbling in my corner. 😂

Are you finding the total volume of crank mail increased since the advent of chatGPT? Or is it people who would have written to you anyway are now getting chatGPT to do it instead?

I haven’t noticed an increase in frequency

Back when I was researching Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, I visited the Harvard College Observatory archives and asked for her, and various others', correspondence. There was a folder from 1959 labelled "cranks". There was a lot of stuff in it. The replies from staff seemed embarassed and subdued.

I guess it makes sense that it’s not a modern phenomenon!

I bet Archimedes et al had to deal with some really tedious personal theories in conversation!

One letter I vividly recall was someone writing to say that they predicted a comet would arrive at the edge of the Solar System, then split into three. They were letting the HCO staff know this would happen and that they expected to be credited with its discovery.

I've seen an increase in the use of bullet points which I think is a sign of ChatGPT. (I normally don't write back - in my whole career one guy a) got under my usual shields and b) actually listened to what I had to say; mean to write it up at some point (with his permission))

I’ve had several where the sender just states outright that they used ChatGPT to write their theory. A few others where it’s clear from the writing. Though tbh I don’t usually read these e-mails all the way through.

I sometimes receive 'proofs' of Fermat's Last Theorem, but this week I received the statement that in a right-angled triangle, not only does c^2 = a^2 + b^2 but also c < a + b. The proof was not included.

This has increased in frequency for me, though not nearly to your level, and recently a couple of them were scary. Wanting to send something to my home address? A strange man writing about guns? Like...why 😬

Crackpots are not imaginative. Another way where the reality doesn't live up to the fiction!

I've seen a number of people claiming they made "groundbreaking discoveries" using chatGPT. And I always just assume it's related to how many Rs and Bs are in the word "strawberry"

Reminds me of this Cartoon I saw earlier this morning

In a charming coincidence, Dr. Mack's profile picture is from a comic from PhD comics where she explained astrophysics from *mumble mumble* years ago

Oh. Love it. Coincidentally Dr Mack and I have been twitter/bluesky acquaintances for *mumble mumble* years!

(Omg just realized this might be seen as negative comment on your perfectly reasonable unsolicited "theory" handling. Oops)

Coincidently I just came across this thread on about the same topic www.threads.com/@drbriankeat... and I thought you might find his conclusion ("these are the most human documents I receive") worthy of interest.

I've sent a couple of emails to astronomers/astrophysicists asking about things I had never learned or had been explained by anyone to me or video or in an encyclopedia. Never got an answer though. I guess I would get the info doing the courses.🤷‍♂️

If there is one thing we can all be certain of, it is that references to ChatGPT (or other LLMs) will only increase in the future.

I like the idea that someones somehow completley correct equation that disproves relativitey is sitting in some professor's junk mail

That’s not how equations or theories work

I know im just making a dumb joke

I used to sometimes get these in my writing/journalism days. My beat was pets and animals?! so these people are really all over the place. they were absolutely creepy and sad

Several years ago I wrote up a form letter response offering my rates for evaluating their theories (entirely reasonable rates IMO), but for some reason nobody wanted to pay me. Mostly the messages now are in video or some other form that I don't want to even click on.

it's cool how we invented a machine that gives people schizophrenia

Yeah…*society* Also that chat bot with the overly supportive vizier vibe

We’re somebody’s science experiment that’s gotten out of hand. Let ChatGPT chew on ~that!

There's nothing entertaining about trying to skirt the second law of thermodynamics.

“My theory by A. Elk. Brackets Miss, brackets. “This theory goes as follows and begins now: All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much, much thicker in the middle and then thin again at the far end. That is my theory, it is mine, and belongs to me and I own it, and what it is too.” —Monty Python

The process Bohr went through - describing why the correspondent was wrong, leading the correspondent to reply with another "corrected" theory, ad infinitum - sounds very much like ChatGPT trying to cover its errors. but still being wrong.

reminds me of the sci-fi novel "timescape" by greg benford, which has a part where the protagonist reveals this weird new discovery in physics, and immediately has people sending him crazy letters and confronting him in public with their bizarre theories.

I'm curious to know what the name of the folder is 😅

I think my father told me this story when I was a young engineer. He was a professor in mechanical engineering. When I was been harrased by my ex the female cop told me never engage with a narcisst. Thy get off on wasting ur mental energy

Wasting your energy? Or feeding off it?